Fairytales
by thanks-for-the-breasthat
Summary: "Daddy, will you tell us a story?" One-shot.


**Short drabble to ease the pain of 2x09. Also on tumblr (our-princess-has-that-effect)**

"Daddy will you tell us a story?" Claudia asked after dinner one night, while thick snow began to pile up outside their small cabin, the brightly-glowing fire keeping the cold at bay.

Clarke looked up from the book she was reading, her feet tucked under her in the chair next to the fire. Across the worn wooden floor, Bellamy sat in the rocking chair Lincoln had made them when Aurora had first come along, a daughter curled against either side of his chest. Quiet nights like this were rare in the Blake household but that only meant that they were more precious.

Bellamy looked down to Aurora and smoothed a hand over her blonde curls. "You want a story too?"

She smiled and nodded, the quieter of the two with just as much conviction and spunk in her spirit as Claudia wore on her sleeve.

He met Clarke's eyes and winked. "Well I guess we'll have story then, won't we?" He cleared his throat and a smile spread on her lips because she knew what was coming. "Once there was a princess from a kingdom in the sky."

"Was she beautiful?" Claudia asked quickly with a wide-eyed stare up at her father.

Bellamy grinned, looking down at her. "Only the most beautiful princess in the kingdom. No one could compare to her, but she had no idea the way she could charm the men."

Clarke bit her lip and tucked her place mark into the pages of her book, setting it aside.

"What color was her hair?" Claudia asked as soon as the words had left his mouth.

Bellamy laughed, too infrequent a sound in Clarke's opinion. He was always more open at home with their family, but that didn't mean that the stress of the council didn't get to him (or her for that matter). "I'm never going to get to the story if you keep asking questions."

Claudia didn't seem intimidated, only giving him a pursed lip frown, her little brow wrinkling. "Daddy, these are important questions."

"All right, I suppose her hair color wouldn't hurt, just for accuracy's sake," he conceded with an overly dramatic sigh. "She had long wavy blonde hair."

"Like Mama's?" Aurora asked softly, peering up at him.

Bellamy met Clarke's eyes and a smile twitched at his lips. "Exactly like Mama's."

She rolled her eyes at him but couldn't hold back the amused grin pulling at her flushed cheeks. Their affection was usually subtle, a touch on the arm, a smile across the table, a kiss on the cheek when no one was looking. This was new and she didn't mind it one bit.

"This princess had some very hard decisions to make, you know. But she was the smartest princess in the sky and she realized that the cloud her people lived on was about to rain and no one wants to live on a thundercloud, so she had to take her and her people to the ground. And do you know who she met on the ground?"

The girls shook their heads.

"She met her knight, the man who saw her for the princess that she was and swore to protect her even before he realized that he loved her. They were a great match, these two, leading their people through this strange land they were learning about together."

Clarke's stomach twisted and she had to look at the flames of the fire to avoid the eye contact she knew Bellamy was trying to make. But then he'd see her blush.

"Why wasn't it love at first sight?" Claudia asked with a slight whine. She was ever the romantic, wanting stories of true love and good conquering evil, traditional fairytales.

"Well," he began with a chuckle. "This knight was a little rough around the edges. He didn't know how to treat a princess who made him realize just _how_ rough he was."

Well there was the understatement of the year.

"There are a lot of different kinds of love, you know, it's not all love at first sight. This one was slow to grow but after a while, the knight knew that there was nothing he wouldn't do for his princess."

A log settled on the fire, sending up a fresh wave of crackling flames. If only their lives had been that black and white.

"But there was an evil king who lived on the nearby mountain, and his kingdom was corrupted with cruelty and selfishness and this princess, well, she sent him on a mission to fight these men who'd captured some of the people from the clouds. And of course, he went, because as much as he hated to admit, he'd go running into any battle if she told him to."

Aurora's head had settled against the bend of his shoulder while Claudia was still sitting up, listening adamantly. Something twisted in Clarke's gut but she pushed it aside, those were events she'd come to terms with. But sinking back into those times, that place. . . that was nowhere she wanted to be.

"But the evil men captured the knight and do you know what they said to him? That he'd never escape from their castle on the mountain and that he'd never see his princess again."

Bellamy's voice lowered and he rubbed a slow hand on Aurora's back.

"Lucky for him, though, his princess wasn't just a princess, she was a warrior too."

Clarke couldn't resist a slight smile at that. There was the pain of those remembered years in his eyes, but also a fierce strength that had faded in their darkest moments, but had never seemed to die away, always returning with renewed vigor.

Her eyes wandered across the freckles smattered over his nose, the dark hair curling on his forehead, mirroring the blonde curls of his daughters' hair as Claudia settled against his chest next to her sister, tan arms folding inwards.

"And this princess, she fought just as hard for her knight as he fought for her."

Bellamy held her gaze across the room as he spoke, and she could practically see the memories flashing between them. They'd both had to be strong. Dark days called for desperate measures. Perhaps there would be a time when they would tell their daughters the full story, start to finish, but for now there was safety in fairy tales, the black and white of a perfect world.

"Did she get him back?" Claudia asked in a low voice, seeming desperately afraid.

"That she did," Bellamy answered gravely. "The beautiful princess was even stronger than her knight and she helped him the rest of her people escape the evil men and defeat them so that their kingdom was once again in peace."

"Did they get married after that?"

Bellamy smiled then, and Clarke shook herself free of those memories. That wasn't a path she wanted to revisit that night, or any night. He pressed a kiss to Claudia's head. "Of course they did, and then they had two beautiful princesses of their own."

Clarke fiddled with the gold band on her finger, twisting it around. A slow smile grew on her face. "I seem to remember a different ending," she said and bit her lip. Bellamy's eyebrows rose and both Claudia and Aurora opened their eyes as Bellamy rocked back in the chair, their legs tucked against his thighs.

"Now who's the one interrupting the story?" he teased.

"Mommy's allowed to interrupt the story," Claudia piped up.

"She is?" Bellamy looked down at her in mock surprise, as if she'd just betrayed him.

Claudia giggled. "Mommy can do what she wants."

A laugh bubbled up in Clarke's throat and she just shook her head, wetting her lips. "I seem to recall that the story ended with three princesses, not two."

Bellamy's smile lingered and then suddenly his eyes were wide and he just stared at her in shock, his rocking ceasing as he realized the implications of what she'd just said. "What?"

Clarke shrugged nonchalantly. "That's just the new version I've heard." She smiled sweetly at him as if she'd just told him the most obvious thing in the world.

His mouth fell open slightly, lips parted and she was almost sure that he'd be asking a lot more questions if their children hadn't been present.

"So they lived happily ever after?" Claudia asked, oblivious to her father's expression above her head.

Bellamy didn't seem to be able to pull himself together so Clarke answered instead. "Yes, they lived happily ever after."

"With—" his voice cracked and he cleared his throat, a flush to his cheeks. "With _three_ princesses?"

She smiled and nodded, letting out a little breathless laugh. "_Three_." She rose from the chair and crossed the floor in front of the fire, pressing her lips to Aurora's forehead, then to Claudia's. "I think it's time for you girls to get into bed."

Aurora yawned and pressed her face into Bellamy's shoulder while Claudia wrapped her arms around Clarke's neck. "Not yet, Mama, please! Just one more story!"

Clarke laughed and ignored the feel of Bellamy's eyes on her. Not that she could blame his surprise, it had come as much as a shock to her as it had to him. "I think you can save that extra story for tomorrow night."

She groaned as she rose with her daughter in her arms. Five years old and she was already getting too heavy to pick up.

"Sure you can—" Bellamy started but she just threw him a raised-eyebrow glance as Claudia clasped onto her hips. Another nine months of having him hovering over her, ready to step in at a moment's notice if she should need anything.

He followed her into the girls' room, an expansion off of the living room Lincoln and Murphy had helped to build once Claudia had been born. Aurora settled into her little bunk at once as Bellamy tucked the covers around her but Claudia was less willing.

"I don't wanna go to bed," she whispered in Clarke's ear as she eased her onto the mattress.

"We all have to be up early tomorrow, sweetheart," she said, leaning over to kiss her forehead. "Daddy and I are going to bed too." Probably not true, but Claudia didn't need to know that.

"Can I sleep with you then?" she tried and Clarke just brushed a few curls from her forehead.

"I think tonight you should stay in here with your sister, all right?"

Claudia let out a huff of breath but yawned. "Can I sleep with you tomorrow night?"

Clarke tried not to smile. She was ever the bargainer but Bellamy stepped towards the bed. "We'll see."

Which meant no, but Claudia seemed to take that for an answer and closed her eyes. "Okay."

They both left with whispered goodnights and eased the door closed. Clarke had already made it to the fire before Bellamy got the first words out.

"Are you really pregnant?"

Clarke smiled, standing with her back to the grate, warming her legs. "Did I not make that clear enough? You certainly seemed to get the point."

Bellamy closed the distance between them in a few quick strides and had his arms around her, hand buried in her hair as he kissed her forehead, her nose, her lips. She smiled against his mouth. "Think we'll have another girl?" he murmured into her cheek.

She smirked and ran her hands up his chest, hooking her hands behind his neck. "Think you can handle four girls?"

He chuckled and shook his head, pulling back to look at her. "If I can handle you, I think I can handle three daughters."

Clarke rolled her eyes. "Oh I'm the hard one to deal with am I? Mr. my-shirts-have-to-be-folded-in-one-oddly-specific-way—"

He smiled as she spoke and leaned down to kiss her again, slower this time, taking his time to step closer so she was pressed against his chest, hands running down her back. Warmth spread from his lips into her body, a tingling settling low in her stomach.

"I love you," he murmured against her lips, voice low. He drew her more firmly against him, kissing her breathless.

"I love you too," she gasped out as he trailed down her jaw, nipping just under her ear.

"I think it's time for us to go to bed too," he said as he started pulling her towards their room.

She grinned, hands already pulling at his shirt. "What princess can refuse her knight?"


End file.
